Investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS) is looking to seize opportunities in investing in private equity real estate funds with its recently created Phoenix Global Real Estate Secondaries platform. And so far, Phoenix is seeing success as the initial $250m capital-raising target exceeded the mark with an additional $120m raised. “We believe that demand for comprehensive expertise in real estate investing combined with the team’s fiduciary background, direct real estate transactional experience and unique access to a substantial flow of secondaries transactions contributed to the strong response we saw from institutional investors globally,” said Jacques Chappuis, head of the Alternative Investment Partners (AIP) division at the bank. According to the chief investment advisor at AIP, Joseph Stecher, private equity real estate fund investors are, for the first time, selling off their secondary market interests. “We are finding tremendous opportunities to acquire high quality assets at attractive valuations,” he said. Morgan Stanley’s Investment Management division currently holds $266bn in assets under management. Write to Jacob Gaffney. The author holds no relevant investments.